[This information is from Vol. I, pp. 496-509 of History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925, edited by Nelson Greene (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925). It is in the Reference collection of the Schenectady County Public Library at R 974.7 G81h. This online edition includes lists of portraits, maps and illustrations. Some images have been relocated to the area in the text where they are discussed. As noted by Paul Keesler in his article, "The Much Maligned Mr. Greene," some information in this book has been superseded by later research or was provided incorrectly by local sources.]

Palatines settle at Stone Arabia and German Flats — Stone Arabia and Burnetsfield Patents and patentees — Spelling of names.

The most important royal grants of lands in the Mohawk Valley, were the Schenectady Patent of 1684, the Stone Arabia Patent of 1723, and the Burnetsfield or German Flats Patent of 1725. These were notable patents, not because of the great extent of the lands they allotted, but for the reason that they were grants not to Provincial favorites or politicians, but to companies of actual settlers who located along the Mohawk River, cleared the land, cultivated the soil and built homes. The bands of pioneers who took up these tracts consisted of about one hundred persons in each case. Although this is a comparatively small number, compared with some other settlements in America, yet each one of the three locations was important in itself, and collectively, as regards the Valley. The numbers were also large for the time and the place and the settlements were most important as regards our history. The founding of Schenectady, Schoharie, Stone Arabia, German Flats and later Cherry Valley brought Dutch, Palatine and Scotch populations into our Valley, which were naturally democratic in their tendencies. Thus, they later became strong Whig and patriot centers and bulwarks of the cause of American independence on a frontier more exposed to attack than any other in the Thirteen British Colonies. Had these settlements been made by pioneers of Tory tendencies, the history of our country might have been decidedly different. It was men of this stock, from the middle and upper settlements of the Mohawk Valley, who stopped St. Leger at Oriskany and there broke up Burgoyne's well concerted plans, so that victory could be won by the brave American warriors at Saratoga. From these facts, it can be readily seen that these three patents and the settlements made under them have an important bearing on American history.

So far as the author knows, there are no records concerning the Palatine Germans who settled in Stone Arabia in 1712, at the time a much greater number of these people located on the Schoharie. It is very probable that such settlement was made at Stone Arabia in the year mentioned. Both Simms and Frothingham are agreed upon that point and both of these men talked with the sons of pioneer Palatines of Stone Arabia. These first settlers on the Palatine hills were technically "squatters" in the eyes of the law, just as were their brethren in Schoharie. They did not receive legal title to their lands until the granting of the Stone Arabia Patent of 1723. Between the coming of the Palatine Germans into the Valley of the Mohawk in 1712 and the issuance of the Stone Arabia Patent in 1723, there were probably other settlements of these people in the section between Stone Arabia and German Flats — the latter in the beginning probably on the sites of present Herkimer and Fort Herkimer. Such settlers at first bought lands of the Indians, trusting to receive later grants for them or to be able to purchase from other patentees. We do not know all the first settlers of the Mohawk Valley but that white pioneers were moving into the Middle and Upper Valley, at the time in question, is quite certain.

The order of the settlements of the Middle and Upper Mohawk Valley (that west of the Noses) is as follows: Heinrich Frey and family, at present Palatine Bridge, 1689; Palatine Germans at present Stone Arabia, 1712; Captain Harmanus Van Slyck, between Palatine Bridge and Nelliston, 1716; Palatine Germans at present German Flats, 1720-25. The district in between the two latter places was scatteringly settled at about the same time.

The Stone Arabia patent was granted, October 19th, 1723, to twenty-seven Palatines, who with their families, numbered 127 persons. The tract conveyed by this patent contained 12,700 acres and was divided into twenty-eight equal parts. Fifty-one lots of fifty acres each were laid out on the track and each twenty-eighth part consisted of one or more of these lots, together with a portion of the undivided land, except that two of the patentees, Lodowick Casselman and Gerhart Shaeffer took their entire twenty-eighths from the undivided portion. Bartholomew Picard took, with his four lots, enough of the undivided land to make two twenty-eighths of the grant. With these exceptions, each patentee's portion included enough of the undivided land to make one twenty-eighth of the grant when added to his lot or lots, these lots being set out and granted in severalty as follows:

The foregoing names are generally differently spelled at present but, like many similar instances, the above spellings may be the errors of the clerk who wrote the document. Similar errors in names may be similarly caused in the Burnetsfield (German Flats) patent of 1725. All the foregoing Stone Arabia patentees were Palatine Germans, with the exception of Frey, a Swiss and Coppernoll a Hollander.

Among the patentees will be noted Elias Garlock, founder of Garlock's dorf on the Schoharie at the time of the settlement there in 1712. As previously mentioned he was the Schoharie Valley justice and a leading man of that community. Simms says "Elias Garlock, the founder of Garlock's dorf, removed to the Mohawk, accompanied by several of his neighbors. Some of the party had relatives or friends there who located at the time the Schoharie settlements were begun, which induced them to remove thither. They settled in and about Canajoharie, at Stone Arabia, or upon the German Flats." Garlock seems to have been the leader of the Schoharie Palatines, who wished to locate on the Mohawk rather than remain in the Schoharie Valley or go to Pennsylvania with Weiser.

The first years of the newcomers in Stone Arabia, must have been spent in the hard work of cutting off the great forest, clearing the land, planting crops and building log houses and barns, and a log church in 1729 on the site of the Stone Arabia Lutheran Church. During this time, it is probable that some of these pioneers or their grown children located along the Mohawk River between the Stone Arabia section and the German Flats. The present Fort Plain section was settled by Palatine pioneers by the names of Crouse, Lipe and Seeber. The St. Johnsville village neighborhood and township was first settled by Palatine families by the names of Klock, Fox, Helmer, Timmerman (also spelled Zimmerman), Veeling, Woolrat (Walrath), Johnson. Probably, the last named was not a Palatine. There were Dutch and British settlers who came into the Middle Mohawk Valley in the early years of its settlement by the Palatine Germans.

The author has been unable to learn the pioneer settlers of the township of Danube in Herkimer County. The earliest settlers of the township of Manheim, Herkimer County are unknown but, probably by 1750, there was a considerable settlement there of Palatines and others by the names of Garter, Newman, Pickert, Van Slyck, Windecker, Cypher, Helmer, Uher, Attle, etc. At Little Falls a lone Palatine named Petri settled with his family and built a mill about 1725, which was the only family at "the Falls" until after the Revolution.

We now come to the settlement of the Palatines at the beautiful Mohawk River region in the Herkimer-Fort Herkimer section. After detailed mention of this important settlement, the history of the Palatine German locations along the Mohawk belongs to the general history of the Mohawk Valley. To those descendants of the Palatines, to whom the turbulent history of the early Palatine settlements on the Schoharie forms somewhat disagreeable reading, it is a pleasure to contemplate their record in their homes along the Mohawk River. Here they formed an industrious and peaceful element, which constituted a powerful support to the cause of American freedom in the later War for Independence. The migration of the Palatines from Schoharie to the Mohawk in 1722, together with those who landed in New York in 1722 and came to the Middle and Upper Mohawk Valley, made a great increase in the population and must have brought the population of the entire Mohawk Valley to above 2,000 in 1725. From that year onward, the population increase was more rapid until there were probably 20,000 people living in the watershed of the Mohawk River at the outbreak of the Revolution.

It is probable that some Palatines located at German Flats in 1720. It must be remembered that German Flats was a general name which covered the flatlands on both sides of the Mohawk River in what is now Western Herkimer County, by which name this whole region west of the Little Falls was known up to the time of the Revolutionary war. It is a sectional name which covered an entire River region. Similarly, the immediate River valley, east of Little Falls to the Noses, was known as Canajoharie, at the same period. As is obvious, the name German Flats came from the location there of the Palatine German pioneers.

The third company of Palatines to land at New York, reached there in October, 1722. They came from Holland and touched at England on the voyage. This was the only shipload of Palatines which reached New York after the great immigration of 1710, all others having gone to Philadelphia for settlement in Pennsylvania. Cobb suggests that this one ship was driven out of its course and so landed its passengers at New York. On this boat were four people by the name of Erghemar (Herkimer). General Nicholas Herkimer, the hero of Oriskany, was a son of one of these Palatine arrivals of 1722, Johan Jost Herkimer, who soon came to German Flats, as subsequently noted. A number of other settlers there are supposed to have been immigrants of the 1722 Palatine ship. The Indian deed for the German Flats is dated July 9, 1722, and it is probable that a number of Palatines were located here then or soon thereafter and that, by the time the Burnetsfield Patent for these lands was granted in 1725, there was a German settlement here then well under way.

"The precise time when the Palatines made their first lodgment in the county is not ascertained. It was not later than 1725. Some, who have speculated upon the subject, suppose they came up the Mohawk Valley as far as the Little Falls and to the Stone Ridge, as early as the year 1720. Their agents, sent to spy out the lands, may have traversed the Valley to the western bounds of the territory claimed by the Mohawk Indians as early as 1720, and, perhaps, before that period; but Governor Burnet had not fixed them, in the new settlement he had obtained for them of the Indians at a very easy purchase, as late as November, 1722, and he, that year, permitted some of them to purchase lands of the Indians 'on a creek called Canada Creek.' They secured the carrying place at the lesser falls [Little Falls], as well as a long extent of wilderness country above by their Indian deed; and the license of the Colonial government to make the purchase, may have been considered, by both parties, an authorization for them to remove before the patent was made out, as it no doubt was a solemn, irrevocable public pledge that the lands would be granted by the crown as soon as they should be surveyed. On this hypothesis, it may be conjectured that settlements were made at or near the present site of the [Fort Herkimer] Stone Church, in the town of German Flats and at Herkimer village, as early as the years 1723-24, if not before. Owning the lands at the carrying place, it is not likely that point was long neglected or unimproved.

"Burnetsfield patent, so called in popular parlance, is a curious document and well worthy of some special notice. It was granted on the 30th of April, 1725. It recites that 'whereas our loving subjects, John Joost Patri and Coenradt Rickert, in behalf of themselves and other distressed Palatines, by their humble petition presented the 17th of January, 1722, to our trusty and well beloved William Burnet, Esq., Captain General and Governor in chief of the province of New York, in council have set forth that in accordance with the governor's license they had purchased 'of the native Indians in the Mohawk's country' the tract of land on both sides of the 'Mohawk's river' commencing at the 'first carrying place [Little Falls] being the easternmost bounds called by the natives Astourogen, running along on both sides of said river westerly unto a place called Gauondagaraon, on the upper end of it', being 'about twenty-four English miles along on both sides of the said river'. The Indian deed is dated July 9th, 1722. That the council advised the governor 'to grant to each of the said persons, man, woman and child, as are desirous to settle within the limits of said tract of land, the quantity of one hundred acres.'

"The grantees were to hold the land in free and common soccage, that being the usual tenure named in the colonial grants at this time, as of the manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent, in Great Britain, subject to an annual quit-rent of two shillings and sixpence per hundred acres, and on condition that the grantees, their heirs and assigns, should, within three years from the date, plant, settle and effectively cultivate at least three acres of land of every fifty acres granted to them. This patent also contains the usual reservation of gold and silver mines, timber fit for the royal navy, and the right to enter upon the lands and take and carry away the same.

"Of the ninety-two persons named in the patent to whom lands were granted, twenty-two appear to be females, by the description, married, single or widowed. The paper does not disclose the number of families or the heads of families represented by males who settled on the tract, or how many one hundred acre lots went to any one family, husband, wife and children."

The form of all English royal grants in the province of New York is similar in that they are given "as of the manor of East Greenwich, in the County of Kent in Great Britain, etc." East Greenwich was a manor belonging to the Crown and this wording of our Colonial patents implied a personal ownership of the New York lands, vested in the King of England and not in the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The list of patentees, under the Burnetsfield patent for lands t German Flats, with the number of each lot, its location as to the north or south side of the river and occasional notes as to locations near present towns, etc., follows, the names being given in alphabetical order:

Mary Beerman, Lot No. 11, 100 acres, north, at Little Falls.

Johannes Beerman, two lots of 100 acres, each numbered 26, north.

Jacob Bowman, Lot No. 27, 100 acres, south.

Johan Adam Bowman, two Lots No. 14, each of 30 acres, north. (Note: All the 30 acre lots were set on what was called the Great Flats, in and near the present village of Herkimer. The 70 acre lots are described in the patent as woodland.)

On the site of the present village of Herkimer was an outcrop of stone and, from this fact the place became known as Stone Ridge. Here, at the outlet of West Canada Creek, were the widest flats between Little Falls and the eastern slopes of present Dutch Hill, so that the Herkimer village section also was called Great Flat, from its earliest days. The patent gave some of the Palatine Germans 70 acre woodland lots elsewhere and small plots of thirty acres, over this Great Flat, which brought together a considerable population, in a comparatively small area, from which fact, the Herkimer section was called Palatine village. As the lands were flats of the river and the settlers were Germans, the place became known as German Flats. This name was a designation, not only of the Herkimer village section, but of the entire section peopled by Germans, between Little Falls and their western settlements which extended nearly to the eastern boundaries of present Utica — and it continued in such use for over a century. Because of the patent issued by Governor William Burnet, the village and its section was also called Burnetsfield, which had a semi-official but not a general usage. The popular name was German Flats, for the village on the site of Herkimer and for the Upper Mohawk Valley region peopled by these Palatine Germans, during both Colonial and Revolutionary times.

The Palatine south shore river neighborhood and its center lay some two miles eastward of Herkimer. It was first known as Okwari or Kouari, a Mohawk word meaning "Bear", but was later called Herkimer's because of the trading post there located by Johan Jost Herkimer, father of General Nicholas Herkimer. The clerical error, which transposed the name of Herkimer from the south to the north shore of the Mohawk and that of German Flats from the north to the south side will be noted in the post-Revolutionary chapter dealing with the incorporation of Herkimer as a village in 1807.

In point of settlement Herkimer is the seventh oldest of our valley villages, the hamlet of Fort Herkimer also dating from the same year — 1722. The settlement of Stone Arabia antedated Herkimer, but no village ensued from the Stone Arabia settlement, which, at first, seems to have also been larger than that of German Flats.

The oldest towns, in point of age, in the watershed of the Mohawk are the following: Scotia, 1658; Schenectady, 1661; Palatine Bridge, 1689; Fort Hunter, 1711; Schoharie, 1712; Middleburg, 1712; Herkimer and Fort Herkimer, 1722. The present sites of Fort Plain, St. Johnsville, Little Falls, Mohawk, Ilion and Frankfort were settled by Palatine Germans about 1725. Caughnawaga, (Fonda) was probably settled about the same time; Canajoharie about 1730; Johnstown, 1755. Cherry Valley, while not in the Mohawk Valley is a part of it historically. It was settled in 1740, and, in 1738, the first settlement at Amsterdam was made by Sir William Johnson.

The earliest events of importance in the history of the Palatine settlements of German Flats were probably the building of a grist mill on Spoon Creek, near present Fort Herkimer Church, the opening of a general store or Indian trading station by Johan Jost Herkimer, east of the Church, the building of log churches at both Fort Herkimer and Herkimer — all probably about the year 1723.

As previously stated, this chapter deals only with the settlement of Palatines along the Mohawk River, as their later history belongs to that of the Valley as a whole. Some mention of Johan Jost Herkimer is here in order as he became the leading citizen among the Palatines of the German Flats section and the father of General Herkimer. The English form of his name is John Joseph Herkimer.

Fort Herkimer takes its name from Johan Jost Herkimer. He came to America, landing in New York in 1722. With him came Catharina, his wife and it is reasonably certain that Jurgh and Magdalana Herkimer, who arrived with him, were his parents. They evidently died at a comparatively early period, leaving no other children besides Johan Jost, who inherited their lots. Tradition says that Johan Jost Herkimer carried a child on his back, from Schenectady to Fort Herkimer. This must have been Catharine, his eldest child. Nicholas, his eldest son and later General Herkimer, was born in his father's log house east of Fort Herkimer in 1728. A D. A. R. marker of 1912 locates the birthplace of this most famous of our Valley Revolutionary patriots.

Johan Jost Herkimer, the pioneer, was a man of tremendous physical strength. A family record (written by Major John Frey, a relative by marriage) says that, on Johan Jost's arrival at his future home in the wilderness, he asked permission of the Indians to there build a cabin. At first, the red men refused. A band of Mohawks, at the time, were endeavoring to carry a dugout canoe, from the forest where they had made it to the river. These dugouts were made from a log, by burning and scraping the charred wood. They frequently were large enough to hold a dozen or more warriors and were generally used to carry war, hunting, or fishing parties along the river at high water. They were the largest craft plying the waters of the Mohawk, in early days, and naturally, they were very heavy. Johan Jost watched the Indians for a time as they made slow progress toward the river, with their heavy burden. Finally the stalwart Herkimer stepped forward and motioned all the red men to one end of the dugout, while he grasped the other prow. In this fashion the boat was soon brought to the river bank. Like all savages and all real men, the world over, the Indians were great admirers of the strong and the brave. The Mohawks clapped Herkimer on the back, called him "the Bear," and gladly gave him permission to build a log house and cultivate the land. From thenceforth, Herkimer, "the Bear," was a great favorite with the Mohawks, a fact which aided him greatly in his after life. Herkimer became a great landowner, trader, contractor, interpreter, and a carrier at the Little Falls and Wolf's Rift. He was the leading figure in the Colonial life of the German Flats settlements and chiefly instrumental in the construction of the Fort Herkimer Reformed Church, which bears his initials, as its builder on the north side of its ancient grey stone walls. The further activities of Johan Jost and his large family of children, enter into our story later on.

At last the Palatines had secured lands along the Mohawk where they could build homes for the future and gain subsistence and moderate wealth from the rich soil of its flats. Their settlement was the most advanced on the frontier of the Mohawk River, the most exposed to French and Indian attack in the Province. The sufferings of our Palatine ancestors in the Great French war and the brave part they played in the Revolution enter into later chapters of this history.